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| TMEA 2026 Winners Revealed: Zhou Shen Takes Three Awards as China’s Biggest Music Stars Celebrate. |
The Tencent Music Entertainment Awards (TMEA) 2026 has crowned its latest group of winners, with Zhou Shen emerging as one of the biggest names of the night after taking home three major honours at the ceremony in Macau. Held at Galaxy Arena, this year’s event celebrated a broad range of artists, albums, songs, concerts and emerging performers, although Zhou Shen arguably made the most convincing case for simply refusing to leave without collecting another trophy.
Zhou Shen won Male Artist of the Year, Concert of the Year for his 2025 “Shen Shen De” Tour Concert and Internationally Influential Singer, putting him firmly among the evening’s standout winners.
His night did not end when the awards were handed out either, as he took part in the closing segment with a six-song run, giving the ceremony a suitably dramatic finale. For an artist already having a very good evening, apparently three awards were not quite enough.
Jane Zhang also secured one of the ceremony’s biggest individual honours, taking Female Artist of the Year, while Roy Wang claimed Album of the Year for Zai Xing Qiong Xia Kuang Ben.
Silence Wang was recognised as Producer of the Year, while his collaboration with Su Long earned IP of the Year. Joker Xue meanwhile picked up Socially Influential Artist of the Year, adding another major recognition to a night packed with familiar names.
The Best of the Year honours covered an especially broad selection of performers. Roy Wang was named Best Mainland Male Artist, while Shan Yichun took Best Mainland Female Artist.
Jeff Chang won Best Hong Kong/Taiwan Male Artist and G.E.M. Deng Ziqi received the corresponding female honour. Liu Yuxin (XIN) was recognised as Best Quality Artist, with Lil Ghost (Xiao Gui/Wang Linkai) named Best Singer-Songwriter and GAI Zhou Yan taking Best Rap Artist.
The category continued with Allen Ren (Ren Jialun) winning Best All-Round Artist and Xianzi receiving Best Dance & Vocal Artist. T.O.P was named Best Chinese Group, while MC Cheung took Best Stage Performance.
The spread of winners shows how TMEA continues to divide its major honours between established solo performers, group acts and artists whose strengths sit across several areas of the modern Chinese music scene.
The Most Influential honours brought another heavyweight collection of names. Lars Huang Zihongfan won Most Influential Mainland Male Artist, while TIA RAY was named Most Influential Mainland Female Artist.
JJ Lin and Jolin Tsai took the Hong Kong/Taiwan male and female categories respectively. Zhang Xincheng won Most Influential Quality Artist, while Yan Renzhong was recognised as Most Influential Singer-Songwriter and TizzyT as Most Influential Rap Artist.
The remaining influence awards went to William Chan for Most Influential All-Round Artist, Ren Jialun for Most Influential Dance & Vocal Artist, TNT for Most Influential Chinese Group and Liu Yu for Most Influential Stage Performance.
It was quite the reminder that “influence” in the music industry apparently requires several categories, presumably because choosing just one would make award season far too straightforward.
The ceremony also placed considerable attention on artists making their mark for the first time or entering a new stage of their careers. Zhang Junhao SHUN won Breakthrough All-Round Artist, Supper Moment received Breakthrough Band, and Yuan Yiqi was named Breakthrough Trending Artist.
Huang Renjun (Renjun) collected Breakthrough Leap Artist, while Cao Yang and Patrick Brasca (Pai Weijun) took the Mainland and Hong Kong/Taiwan breakthrough honours respectively.
GAI Zhou Yan also picked up Breakthrough Concert for his “Jin Hua Lun World Tour Concert”, while Yao Xiaotang was named New Power Artist. Shen Jiajun Nina received New Power All-Round Artist, Shen Mengyao won New Power Dance & Vocal Artist and VIVA was recognised as New Power Chinese Group.
These awards gave the ceremony room to look beyond the biggest established names and highlight performers positioned as the next generation of the industry.
The album and song categories brought another wave of major recognitions. Lay Zhang won Chinese Digital Album of the Year for Nao Tian Gon, while Lu Han received Digital EP of the Year for Seasons.
Lay Zhang also celebrated after Nao Tian Gon was named Chinese Digital Album of the Year, telling fans in a warm acceptance speech: “This album carries a lot of my thoughts, energy and time, so receiving this recognition means a great deal to me. Thank you to everyone who listened, shared your feelings and stayed with the music. I hope I can continue creating songs that give you something to remember and enjoy.”
JJ Lin took Chinese Digital Single of the Year for Shun Jian De Shun Jian, from the film Ta Nian Ta Ri. TNT won Physical Album of the Year for San Chong Lou.
The Movie/TV OST Album of the Year recognition was shared across the soundtracks of Shine On Me, Legend of Zang Hai and Moonlight Mystique. For Movie/TV OST Single of the Year, Tang Hanxiao was recognised for Jiu Shi Ne Zha, while Chen Chusheng received the honour for Miao Tang Zhi Wai.
The gaming side of music was also represented, with JJ Lin winning Most Influential Game Music Theme Song for Ming Ri Zuo Biao, the Honor of Kings 10th anniversary theme.
G.E.M. Deng Ziqi and League of Legends meanwhile received Best Game Music Theme Song for Sacrifice (Zheng), the 2025 League of Legends World Championship theme. Melody Journey Season 2 was named Original Variety Show IP of the Year, while Hei Shen Hua: Wu Kong – Game Music Selection received the Crossover Breakthrough Physical Album honour.
The platform-specific awards added another layer to the TMEA 2026 results. T.O.P was named QQ Music’s Top Group of the Year, while Ren Jialun received QQ Music & JOOX Users’ Top Artist Picks of the Year.
Liu Yu was named QQ Music & JOOX Artist of the Year, with Zhang Junhao SHUN taking Artist to Watch of the Year. On KuGou Music, Liu Yuning won Fans’ Favorite Artist of the Year and Ren Jialun was named Most Heart-Fluttering Artist of the Year.
TIA RAY received Kuwo Music’s Annual Quality Singer Award, while Shan Yichun won WeSing’s Best-Sung Album of the Year for Chun Mei Mei. Zhan Xuan was selected as JOOX’s Annual Recommended Artist with Cross-Genre Influence. Among Tencent Musicians, h3R3 Liu Qingyun was named Artist of the Year, while the TMEA and Billboard collaboration recognised Zhou Shen among the artists with global influence.
The ceremony also revealed several song-based rankings, with Ren Jialun’s Yue Qiu Ju Le Bu, Zhang Yunlei’s Jiong Jiong, TF_ING Deng Jiaxin’s I Guess Nobody, Zhang Xincheng’s Xi Ju and Jeff Chang’s Wei Kao Jin Er Yuan Li among the Top 10 Popular Songs.
The selection also included Zhan Xuan’s Day By Day, Liu Yu’s Si Jun Zhao Yu Mu, Lil Ghost’s Dancing Till I Die, Lars Huang’s Do U and Tan Jianci’s Get To It.
The Top 10 Heartbeat Songs included Huang Xing and Qiu Dingjie’s My Devotion, Huang Xing’s You Yi Sui, TF_ING Zhang Zimo’s Hai Gui Ri Ji, Yu Shi’s Cheng Chuan and Li Peien and Jiang Heng’s My Summer Lover.
TF_ING Mu Shecheng, TF_ING Deng Jiaxin, Lars Huang, Zhan Xuan and Mao Buyi completed that selection with Dreamin, Cheng De Shang Zhi De, Xia Ge Ri Chu, Day By Day and Wan Li You respectively.
The Golden Melodies selection leaned heavily towards recognisable names, including Silence Wang’s Xiang Qing Tian Xiang Yu Tian, Cai Xukun’s Deadman, Zhou Shen’s Hao Feng Qi, Roy Wang’s Xue Beng and Jeff Chang’s Zhe Shi De Ming Zi. Jane Zhang’s Ye Xin Jia, TNT’s Quan Shi Jie Wo Zui Mei, Joker Xue’s Yue, Stefanie Sun’s Ri Luo and Shan Yichun’s Zhu Yu completed the top 10.
The final Top 10 Hit Songs selection included Penny’s Da Huo Ji, Fei Fei Gong Zhu (Lu QiFei’s) Di 57 Ci Qu Xiao Fa Song, Li Yuanjie and Au’s Xi Lou Ai Qing Gu Shi, hanser’s Shi Nei Xi De TrackMaker, Fu Junle’s Qu Yuan Fang and Shan Yu and Gua Shou’s Jie Jiao De Wan Feng. Tian Yuan, Yu Dongran, Quan Yao Jiu and Xiao Lu rounded out the selection with You Yi Zhong Yi Han Jiao Wo Men, Zuo Wei, Shan Gao Lu Yuan and Ping Fan Ri Zi Li De Zheng Zha.
While the supplied TMEA 2026 results do not include verbatim acceptance speeches from the winners, the awards themselves tell a fairly clear story.
Zhou Shen was the evening’s biggest individual success, Ren Jialun appeared repeatedly across major and platform honours, and artists including Jane Zhang, Roy Wang, JJ Lin, G.E.M. Deng Ziqi, Shan Yichun and TNT continued to feature prominently across the ceremony’s biggest categories. The six-song closing performance from Zhou Shen also gave the night a particularly memorable final chapter.
Fan reactions to the TMEA 2026 results are naturally varied. Some will be pleased to see their favourites recognised across the main categories, while others are likely to scrutinise the distribution of awards, particularly when major names appear repeatedly across different honours.
With such a long list of categories, there is also plenty of room for fans to celebrate one result while immediately starting an argument about another. Award season would hardly feel complete without that familiar ritual.
For Zhou Shen, however, the night is difficult to argue with: three major awards and a six-song closing performance made him one of the defining figures of TMEA 2026. The bigger conversation now is which winners and songs will continue to dominate fan discussions after the Macau ceremony has wrapped. Did your favourite artist get the recognition they deserved, and which TMEA 2026 result surprised you most?